There’s been a lot of press in the last few months about ‘Twitter Quitters’ and the 60% of users that stop tweeting after about a month. And now, there appears to be some indication that Twitter usage has flatlined, although time spent on Twitter in the last year has grown a whopping 3712%.

A lot of people have tried Twitter and a lot still don’t get it. Many perceive it still as way to broadcast what you had for lunch or simply to brag about your latest achievement — but those of us who’ve stuck with it are probably in there for the long term. As this wise blogger posted, it takes time to get it. (Be sure to read the comments in that blog post too; you’ll get a good sense of the various reactions to Twitter.)

Me? I’m sticking with it, definitely. I had a few ‘hmmm…’ moments when starting out, but I think this is to be expected with any new communication medium. Perhaps in our ‘more now’ society, and the ease of so many Internet-related applications and tools, we are expecting it to be easier. But as with many endeavors, sticking with it can have some real advantages.

Like any networking, Twitter is not an immediate pay-off. Just as you wouldn’t walk into any networking meeting and expect to get business (although it can happen), you shouldn’t tweet expecting to garner any immediate ROI, either. Like any good networking, you’ll need to spend time (and definitely more than a month) growing and cultivating your following/follower list to start to see the real value.

As Hutch Carpenter points out in his post, it’s about finding your stride on Twitter. Some get it immediately, for others it takes more time. If you’re going to try tweeting, I recommend committing for at least 3 months. Even if you think you have no idea what to say, at least start following others and read along until you feel comfortable enough to start tweeting. It really does take time and I think chances are high that as a business user, you’re going to see benefit within that 3 month period.

Following is what I’m getting out of Twitter already, in the short time that I’ve been tweeting. And by the way, I don’t tweet everyday, and I don’t tweet a lot. A good day for me is probably somewhere between 5-10 tweets, sometimes a lot less. And sometimes, nothing at all. I think it will increase in the future, but for now, I’ve taken the pressure off of myself to be a ‘power tweeter’ and am enjoying what I’m getting from Twitter for now — which is definitely enough to keep me coming back.

Accessibility
An amazing number of high-level and accomplished people are on Twitter already. And most likely, at least a few of them are in your field of work. To have access to their daily thoughts, interests, rants and raves is exciting, informative and instructive all at once. Also good: the potential to connect very genuinely with these people, and the possibilities that lie therein. You can tweet them directly, and they just might answer back. Probably more so than if you sent them an email.

Information
Staying ahead of the curve is a challenge no matter what your field of expertise. And key to staying ahead is information. In the three months I’ve been on Twitter and started following people whose tweets I like and work I respect, I have gained access to a plethora of sites, articles and general information (both business and personal) that I may not ever have stumbled across before. It can be overwhelming, but once you get used to picking and choosing what to pay attention to, it’s actually wonderful to have so much information coming effortlessly to your desktop every day. And if you’re an info/news junkie, you’ll love it.

Speed
I can’t think of a faster way to disseminate or have access to information these days. The immediacy of Twitter is key to its success and there have been numerous instances of Twitter users coming to the rescue in one way or another for fellow tweeters.

Insight
Tweeting is a great way to get some insight and perspective into the personalities of the people you’re following. Some tweeters keep it strictly business, but many do not. And while it’s not the same as working together (virtually or otherwise), it can definitely give you information to consider as you’re deciding who you’d like to join you on a project — or not (!)

Antidote to Isolation
As a consultant, you may already be far too familiar with this one: isolation. After 11 years of running my own business, it’s what I dislike the most about being self-employed. Networking is nice, but sometimes hard to get because of distance, time or both. Twitter is no replacement for human interaction, but it’s not bad. I already feel a good deal less isolated and know that with a small amount of effort on my part, I can immediately reach out to a large community of fellow designers (and interesting non-designers as well) with my questions, comments and general instinct to share info and neat things I run across. It’s as fun as it is informative.

I orginally thought tweeting would only work for certain personality types. But now I see it as an indispensable business tool that any consultant would be wise to seriously consider and include in their arsenal of brand-building and self-promotion. You may not love Twitter, and you may not end up being a heavy user. But chances are that if you understand the power of networking and viral marketing, you’re going to ‘get it’ immediately. For the small amount of effort it takes to be on Twitter, the rewards are pretty significant.

Happy tweeting! And be sure to leave a comment about your Twitter experiences — both good and bad.

This is the second part of my recap of the EBWIBR Social Media Luncheon that I attended on Friday, April 3rd. I learned quite a bit in the two presentations given by Nancy Friedman of WordWorking and Kelly Parkinson of Copylicious. It was obvious both presenters had far more to say about Twitter and LinkedIn than we had time for, and I look forward to hearing these women speak in the future about Social Media. In the meantime, here’s a recap of Kelly’s presentation which focused on using one of LinkedIn’s powerful networking tools: InMails.

If you’re like me, you’ve set up your LinkedIn profile and you’ve got a nice set of contacts. Perhaps you’ve sent out recommendation requests and got those set up as well. Maybe you’ve joined a few LI groups. And then you let your account sit there. What a lot of people either don’t realize or aren’t taking advantage of is that LinkedIn can be a great social media tool as well.

Let’s talk results first: when Kelly tried InMail (initially as sort of an ‘experiment’, and not expecting huge results), she had a 41% response rate and 6 new clients. If that doesn’t make you sit up and take notice in this economy, I don’t know what will. I should note that I would like to know how many InMails Kelly sent because while that’s a great response, InMails do cost money. (And Kelly if you read this, please comment if you can.) But as the saying goes, sometimes you’ve got to spend a little money to make a little money.

What is InMail? InMails are a proprietary LinkedIn networking tool. It is a paid service and may seem pricey at first: $10 a pop. However, there’s an enticing aspect to this and for some, a significant upside: no cold calling. Now, if you’ve been in business for a while, you probably don’t do a lot of cold calling, or only as your last resort. But if you are new to the game (as Kelly was at the time), or in a, ahem, down economy, you might find it necessary to pick up that telephone. Before you break out in a cold sweat and do that however, consider InMails. Quick, easy, non-invasive and here’s a bonus: if they’re not opened, you get a 100% refund on the InMail and you can use it to send to someone else. You only pay for what actually gets opened. For me, that softens the blow of the $10 price tag a bit.

Also, keep in mind that you won’t be blasting to hundreds of people at a time. One of the myths about using LinkedIn that Kelly pointed out is that being a ‘power user’ is not necessarily the best way to go about it. Are you really going to have any meaningful contact or interchange with 8000 connections? Chances are more likely that if you cultivate a smaller but highly relevant set of contacts and selectively add to them when doing InMails, you’re chances of making contacts that actually go somewhere are much higher.

How do I use InMails? If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, you’ll need to get that first. And honestly, if you’re just getting started on LI, you’ll probably want to explore the basic features before you jump into InMails. But in the event you’re ready to jump in, or have been on LI for a while now, sending InMails is not rocket science. Basically you would want to do a keyword search on LinkedIn to find the people you’d like to contact. In Kelly’s case, she use ‘marketing manager cleantech’ as this was where she wanted to focus her work. Hint: as in any marketing outreach program, targeted InMails will probably get you a much higher response rate. Use the very user-friendly LinkedIn UI to set up the emails, compose your message and hit ‘Send.’ Easy as that.

What should I say in my InMail? Keep it short and suggest a brief initial contact: ‘Let’s talk for 15 minutes on x/x/2009, etc.’ Nobody likes to be sold heavily on the phone, or even in person, right? Bless your email outreaches with the same brevity and you’re more likely to get a response.

Another great tip from Kelly: as you’re going to send your InMails (and I think this works for almost any outreach marketing you do) remember that you are the expert and they need you. Approach this kind of outreach with the attitude of ‘why, of course you want to hear from me, because I can really help you.’ This takes the pressure off of ‘making that sale’ and comes from a more honest, non-aggressive and, I believe, successful position than what we sometimes are taught as ‘good’ sales techniques.

I haven’t tried InMails yet, but I intend to do so in the future. I’ll report back here with what success I have, if any, and I hope to hear from any of you out there on The Internets who have also tried InMails and what your experience has been.

In future posts, I’ll be exploring other networking features of LinkedIn and how to really work your profile. For now, I’ll be focusing on Twitter though as I’ve only begun to scratch the surface there.

As one of WIC’s Social Media Co-Chairs, I’ve been keeping my eye open for speaking events from users of social media. I was particularly interested in users that were perhaps not ‘power users’, or social media experts, but users that were a little more like you and I. Or perhaps, more like we’d like to be.

Last week I found just the thing: EBWIBR’s monthly luncheon. EBWIBR (East Bay Women In Business Roundtable) is a division of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and this event was a luncheon which featured copywriters Nancy Friedman (Wordworking.com) and Kelly Parkinson (Copylicious.com) who spoke on Twitter and LinkedIn, respectively. The event was well attended (sold out) and I found the speakers to be both engaging and very informative, with eye-opening personal experiences when it comes to leveraging social media. I saw several women in the room pulling out their laptops and cellphones to sign up for Twitter as I left. I left more convinced than ever that the ‘Twitter Train’ has left the station and that working your LinkedIn connections is a tool too many of us are leaving untapped.

Following is a recap of my notes from the meeting on Twitter (thank you, Nancy!) as well as a few other tips and observations I’ve picked up in the last few weeks since I’ve started researching social media B2B usage and viability. I’ll cover what I learned on LinkedIn from Kelly in my next post.

What is Twitter? Twitter is not a web site or a place. It is a moving sidewalk, a cocktail party. It’s a whole new way to talk to your clients and colleagues. It’s organic, it’s real and it’s lightening fast and usage is growing daily. Just recently, Twitter searches have overtaken Google searches. That is a significant milestone.

How do I sign up? Getting on board takes about the time it would take to create an email account (faster, depending on what client you’re using.) Twitter is permission-free. You can follow anyone you want (and there are a LOT of interesting people already on Twitter) and anyone can follow you. Don’t worry though, you can also block anyone from following you.

How do I use Twitter? Once you sign up, you’ll be directed to your Twitter account page with the question ‘What are you doing?’ and a field to enter your answer to that question. Note: do not feel obligated to confine your posts to answer that question alone; it’s no longer just about what you’re doing (keep reading.) You can post from your desktop, iPhone or Blackberry, etc. Posts are confined to 140 characters each (hello, copyediting and tinyurl.com) and as Nancy pointed out, confining oneself to 140 characters to communicate a thought, idea or comment is an excellent writing exercise. You should count on posting at least 5x/day to start. If that sounds overwhelming, try just a few a day to start and take it from there. Don’t overthink your posts. Be genuine and talk about what interests you or your current issues/needs. You may be surprised who is searching on the same terms you are writing about, and who will show up (sometimes very quickly) in your ‘Follower’ list once you start posting.

Tweeting comes more naturally to some people than others (more on that later), use it at your own pace and see what happens. Avoid sales pitches and tooting your horn; this isn’t the place for it. Ideally, you’d want other people to be tweeting about you. You can, however, use Twitter to ask questions, put out feelers for work you’d like to do, put out feelers for contractors or employees, talk to experts (people you might normally have a hard time reaching), publicize an event, post your thoughts/comments and respond to other Tweets. The point is to generate a cocktail-like feed of comments between you and everyone else at the ‘party.’ Nancy had another wonderful term for what happens on Twitter: “ambient intimacy.” She also alluded to it as the ‘well of water that exists before you turn on the tap’ which I thought summed up the Twitter phenomena very nicely.

How do I get started once I sign up? Sign up and start tweeting. Search for people you know who might be on Twitter. Search for people you don’t know but would like to know and start following them. Most people will not block you and you could soon find yourself tapped into a rich network of information to which you’ve never had access. Ask questions, tell your Twitter community what you need, and be surprised at how quickly you may get answers.

Nancy had a great tip on getting started: simply lurk and follow other Tweeters for a while to see how it’s done. Once you’ve gained some comfortableness and confidence, you can start your own posts. You may find yourself joining the conversation(s) sooner than you think!

Why should I sign up? I can think of at least 2 reasons why you should sign up, even if you’re not ready to start tweeting right away: 1/Branding: grab your personal or business name handle (or both) before someone else (or your competition) does. Kind of like getting your url before someone else does. 2/Twitter appears to be taking off. Even if usage flattens out at some point, it’s probably wiser to get on board sooner rather than later, especially if you work in the fields of Marketing, Design, Copywriting, PR, Web Development, etc.

Will I like it? You won’t know until you try. Approach Twitter (and all social media) with a playful, experimental, creative attitude. These are relatively new communication mediums and you might feel out of your comfort zone initially. Many Twitter users report becoming addicted one they start, however.

If you are a news junkie, you will most likely love Twitter. If you are a person who is overwhelmed by new information, no matter how small, you will probably need to go slowly and it may require some adjustment. Also, you may not like it and that’s okay too. There are many forms of social media networks these days; the idea is to find the one you like and you most likely will incorporate it naturally into your business communication.

Can I brand my Twitter page? Yes, you can! But that’s a post unto itself, so I’ll cover that in subsequent Twitter blog posts. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of using this wonderful new tool.

Feel free to look for me on Twitter, my handle is elevatainc. I look forward to seeing many of you there soon!

P.S. I updated my Twitter account last night and I’ve got 4 new followers in the last 24 hours. How’s that for fast networking?

In times like these, we’re tested as consultants in almost every way. Here are just three:

- What clients want or need may be even harder to define than it normally is – or it may be constantly changing.

- Despite budgets that are tighter, requirements may not be much lighter than in more lavishly-funded times.

- While we work hard to help clients stay focused and achieving important goals, our own focus may be regularly challenged in large and small ways.

One blog I’ve noticed recently, Lateral Action, provides creative inspiration and ideas with a very practical – and productive – edge. Check it out. Two recent posts may be especially helpful, The Ultimate Productivity Toolbox for Creative People and The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People.